


Caught, catching

by grainjew



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, snivy voice i got one good thing from my old trainer and it was a gender, snivy voice ok and leaf storm i guess, tepig is also there but it spends the whole fic asleep so lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:42:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27178732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew
Summary: Coda to Best Wishes episode 7, “Snivy Plays Hard to Catch!”Soon after her capture, Ash and Snivy sit down for a sunrise conversation about trainers and the having thereof.
Relationships: Satoshi | Ash Ketchum & Satoshi no Tsutarja | Ash Ketchum's Snivy
Comments: 28
Kudos: 146





	Caught, catching

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fallingwish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingwish/gifts).



From the moment Ash caught her, Snivy had been making preparations to run.

He seemed alright, as far as trainers went. Didn’t have a strategic thought in his head, and obviously had no idea when to quit, but he’d turned around and taken the force of her Vine Whip to protect Pikachu and he was kind to his pokemon, so he clearly wasn't _terrible_. But it never hurt to be cautious, and it was just common sense to keep her options open. Snivy, as a rule, wasn’t a huge fan of trainers. 

And yet, it had been two days, and she still hadn’t left. 

Instead, she was sitting on a boulder at the edge of their hilltop campsite, watching the sunrise. Pidove were twittering nonsense at each other in the trees below, and a splash of water from some territorial dispute arced into the air and caught the light. Behind Snivy, the morning bustle was picking up, as pokemon released themselves from their pokeballs, and food sizzled, and humans groaned. 

Footsteps approached. Snivy very carefully didn’t blink as Ash settled down beside her, Tepig still fast asleep in his arms. He stroked it, fingers carding through its thick bristle, and smiled as it snuffled a little and shifted dream-caught in his arms. Snivy kept half an eye on him and waited for him to make the first move. 

“Tepig’s had a really hard time of it,” he said finally, after a minute of just sitting there watching the sky light up in pink and red.

…Not the opening she’d expected. “Snivy?”

Ash looked down at the pokemon in his lap. “Its old trainer thought it wasnt strong, so he abandoned it.” Ash’s face made an offended sort of shape, and he flung out a hand. “Which is stupid of course! Tepig’s super, super strong, and it’s getting stronger and stronger every day! But it doesn’t think so, ‘cause its old trainer was a jerk.” He frowned ferociously. “So we’re working on that too.”

And now Snivy was just wondering why he was telling her this. 

He was still for a moment, and then seemed to realize she wasn’t going to say anything and pulled his hand back to his side. “I dunno if you wanted to know that about Tepig,” he continued, looking at her now and tilting his head, “but everyone else already knew, so it woulda been kinda weird if you didn’t. And…” He bit his lip. “It’s true I dunno anything that happened to you, not really. But Cilan thinks you used to have a trainer, and I think he’s probably right, and I think you’d say if we were wrong.”

Snivy didn’t look at him. 

They weren’t wrong, of course, and when she thought about it it was hardly a surprise that they’d figured it out. Cilan had a gym leader’s eye for battle style, and Ash could carry on entire conversations with Pikachu like they spoke the same language. It made sense, but it still disturbed her a little, to be read so easily by humans she barely knew. She didn’t _want_ to be legible like that. 

“Piiiig…” mumbled Tepig from its dreams, a low, content sound, and Snivy marveled that someone so hurt could trust so much. All of Ash’s pokemon so clearly adored him: Tepig with that deep faith Ash could do anything, Oshawott so jealous and hungry for gladly-given praise, Pidove, willing to plunge into battle for him despite its distaste for conflict, Pikachu, confident and powerful and experienced and so much a part of Ash as to be an extra arm. It couldn’t possibly be healthy, to love a human that much. It wasn’t healthy to love your trainer at all. Snivy had learned quick and fast that trainers never really loved you back.

“Snivy,” she said, and crossed her arms.

“I’ve had…” said Ash. He glanced down again, as Tepig snuffled in its sleep. “I’ve worked with a bunch of pokemon like Tepig before, whose old trainers were awful to them and who were really hurt because of it. And…” He bit his lip again. “You’re a bit different from them, I know, but you were also hurt by whoever your trainer was before.” Snivy didn’t look at him. Snivy didn’t look at him. “So I wanna make sure I can help you too, no matter what.”

Snivy’s first trainer had been driven. Ash reminded Snivy of her a little: they had the same lust for battle, the same intensity in their training and their goals, and the arrogant assurance Snivy had spotted once or twice in Ash had clung to Snivy’s first trainer like a physical thing. And Snivy’s second trainer had been the opposite, utterly uninterested in any kind of challenge and content with a cute little snivy handed down from a distant older sister. They had coddled and pampered and expected nothing from Snivy at all, until Snivy couldn’t bear another moment and left them behind.

Neither of them had ever offered to help her. 

Snivy didn’t look at Ash.

“An’ I’ve been thinking,” he continued, “’cause I know you’re really, really strong, strong enough that if you wanted, you totally coulda evolved all the way by now.” Snivy’s hands clenched. “So I think you’ve not evolved ‘cause you don’t want to.”

The problem with Ash was, he was ideal. And ideal trainers didn’t exist.

“And, um,” he said, as a braviary winged across the sky and cloud of cottonee drifted above the trees, “I needed to tell you, when I thought of that, that I never ever want to ask you to do something you don’t want. Especially not evolving. If you don’t wanna evolve then that’s that! And we’ll work on using how small and quick you are. And if you do, then I’m sure your evolutions are totally awesome! But it’s up to you.”

He wanted to win, and be challenged, and strive, but he was perceptive, too, and he cared about Snivy’s needs, and she never would have believed what he was saying about evolution except that she’d _met_ Pikachu, who moved with the grace of long experience and who could have been evolved — like it or not — at any time, with just one purchase at a pokemart.

Pikachu, who had told her the night she was caught, that with Ash and the team she would always have a family. 

She’d scoffed. Everyone knew teams like that, with considerate trainers and pokemon who loved each other, were lies told to naive starters in the lab, and anyway, she was just fine alone.

Pikachu had laughed in her face.

But: Trainers were arrogant, fickle, and set in their ways, and most of all they were selfish. 

“You’re so smart, and strong, and so _amazing_ at battling! You could _totally_ have any trainer you wanted in the whole world. I’m so super lucky to have you on my team!”

Attract to disable. Vine Whip to immobilize. Leaf Storm to win. Come _on_ , Snivy, evolve already, why’s it taking so long? We’ll never win _anything_ if you can’t be _strong_. _Wow_ , I guess all you’re good for is looking cute after all. My little sibling will love you, and good thing too, because I sure don’t have time for this.

Look pretty, let me hold you, stagnate in my arms. I love you so much, my cute little snivy! No, of course we won’t battle, you might get _hurt_! Try on this necklace instead, ooh and this cape, you look so cute in them! You could be a model!

Tricking them into breaking her pokeball was _easy_. Snivy didn’t bother looking back.

And she wasn’t looking at Ash now, either.

“And I dunno who didn’t think they were lucky to have you,” said Ash. She still wasn’t looking, but out of the corner of her eye she could see him frown. “But they were stupid, and a jerk, and they were definitely missing out! Cause you’re _amazing_.” Snivy didn’t look at him. Snivy looked out into the forest, and didn’t look at him. She didn’t. Not even when he put a hand on her back, gentle, or when Tepig murmured in its sleep. But she didn’t move, either. “And I think we can be totally amazing partners if we keep working together.” He threw a fist in the air. “We’ll win the Unova League together for _sure_ , and I’ll be a Pokemon Master, and the whole _world_ will know how cool you are!”

Snivy wasn’t crying, either. Not even a little bit.

“If, um, that’s okay with you?”

“Vy!” she said. And she caught his eye, and nodded sharply, and watched him laugh his joy to the sky, and they walked back to the campsite together.

The sun was rising. She could give this a try.

**Author's Note:**

> the definite reasons why snivy and oshawott respectively never evolved:  
> snivy: her old trainer thought first-evolution pokemon were weak and constantly heckled her about not having evolved yet, so now she refuses to out of pure spite, a sentiment which has only grown in strength since meeting ash's pikachu  
> oshawott: too stupid to figure it out
> 
> i have a writing tumblr now, [come say hi](https://grainjew.tumblr.com/)!


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